Types of Creative Spaces

Meet the makerspaces are spaces that allow for the display and sale of creative goods to the public, and often accommodate light manufacturing processes and spaces for production.

They can be temporary or permanent, for usage as a ‘meet the maker’ shop, shopfront, showroom or market. These types of spaces are best suited to industry practitioners of design, craft, fashion or visual arts.

Creative studio spaces are spaces that provide individual creative practitioners and small businesses with private, safe and healthy conditions required for both ‘clean’ and ‘wet’ creative making and production. 

A studio space to support ‘wet’ work may require specific liquid waste management solutions. Examples include screen printing, fabric dyeing, painting (involving acrylic or solvent based paints) and resin work. Inversely, a ‘clean’ studio can function safely without onerous liquid waste management. Examples include printing, small-scale laser-cutting, model-making, drawing, sketching, fabric and fashion art forms.

Digital media, architecture and photography practitioners may find a creative office space more suitable to their needs. 

Creative studio spaces are are often clustered together within one larger tenancy and typically operate 6-7 days per week, with 24/7 access to accommodate users wishing to work in the studio at any time of day. 

Exhibition spaces are spaces that can be easily equipped with the necessary infrastructure required to support a regularly changing display of creative work in both physical and digital formats to an audience, often supported by front-of-house and back-of-house facilities.

In addition to use as a gallery, these spaces can also be used as museums, window galleries or as art storage facilities. 

Workshop spaces are spaces that provide the specialist machinery, equipment, tools, and infrastructure required to support the creative design, fabrication and assembly of products in a safe and controlled environment.

This can include digital fabrication, woodwork, metalwork, ceramics, glassware, jewellery, textiles and fashion, printing and photography.

Live performance and rehearsal spaces are spaces that support the development and presentation of live performances, accessed by both creative industries users and public audiences.

These spaces range from theatres and performing arts venues, music venues for both contemporary and classical music, outdoor venues and private rehearsal spaces for developing, practicing and preparing performances.

Multi-purpose spaces are spaces that are flexible and easily adapted to accommodate a variety of different uses such as live performances, exhibitions, conferences and workshops, and functions and events, supported by front-of-house and back-of-house facilities and a dedicated operational team. 

Can include both built and open spaces, often with the supplement of partitions or modular walls to allow the changing of the space to suite performances, exhibitions, workshops or events. 

Digital media spaces are spaces that provide technology and infrastructure to support the production of creative audio, visual and interactive media content in a controlled environment.

These spaces may be dedicated suites or hybrid spaces that support production and post-production activities, across film, television, visual effects, animation, augmented and visual reality, photography, games, apps, online content, music and podcasts.

Creative office spaces are spaces that provide individuals and business with dedicated workspace for the running of creative business operations. 

Unlike creative studio spaces,  these spaces are best suited to computer or collaboration based work, such as meetings and workshops and often supported by reception areas, meeting rooms, and communal spaces such as break out areas and kitchenettes.

Either in private or communal environments, creative office spaces require more generous spatial allowances and a sharper focus on affordability than standard co-working space. 

Live-work spaces are residential spaces that include additional space, facilities and infrastructure for creative production. They can be residences with internal workspaces, or residences with shared workspaces found elsewhere in the building. 

Live-work residences are rare in Australia as creatives and artists are not listed as key workers. They are increasingly being considered, especially to integrate with emerging alternative housing models (limited-profit developments, build-to-rent). There can be a clear placemaking and activation dividend when tenants and owners of live-work contribute to the community through open days and public activities.